#28DayBlogChallenge Day 15 – Nightmares

I would say that I remember about 90% of my dreams, at least for a little while after I wake up. Some of them stick with me and I can’t shake them off. The worst are the reoccurring nightmares that seem to never go away.

For the past few nights I have experienced some horrific dreams that have left me waking up and not wanting to go back to sleep, because I know it’s possible for me to return to that particular dream. Having a vivid imagination at times like this is not a good thing as what I see seems so real and the things that happen in my dreams I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

I used to think that I only had nightmares when I was stressed, or there was something niggling at the back of my mind and the nightmare was a hint for me to figure out what was wrong. This is strange though because as far as I’m aware, everything is okay. I don’t know if this is a way my anxiety has managed to worm it’s way into my brain, knowing it’s a way I can’t control it and it is not a good feeling.

I try to not let it consume my day, but waking up and feeling sad or scared is getting old and I wish I knew why I was having such terrifying dreams.

There are a lot of theories as to why we dream, but as far as I know, there is nothing set in stone to help me figure this out. I thought I was finally moving forward and it seems that any part of my mind that possibly can, is trying to pull me back. At this point all I can do is keep looking ahead and hope whatever this problem really is will surface and I can face it, or the nightmares subside as soon as possible.

Usually I love to sleep, I love to dream. It brings me so many ideas and sometimes it feels like I’m watching a movie in my head, which is awesome. Fingers crossed tonight is better.

Until next time, Sweet dreams!

-Sara

Featured Image: https://brainwavepowermusic.com/home/blog/the-war-on-nightmares-fighting-back-with-reality-checks-and-lucid-dreaming

Fingers crossed you get some peaceful sleep, i have some strange dreams and nightmares at times. Though it has been a while since one caused a bad nights rest.
Always figured dreams were your brains way of dealing with the day, or anything on your mind. Which can lead to solutions or atleast an acceptance.

Hmm… interesting yet terrible situation. Sucks that you have to go through it. Maybe it reflects some future fear? If not, maybe the past is haunting you? I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to introspect.

On the bright side, you may be able to use the horrible dreams as inspiration for your poetry. Capture it with the power of the pen and create something non-destructive with it, thereby kind of helping you show your strength over it. 🙂 All the best. Hope you can overcome them.

Oh, okay. Yep, probably something troublesome there. Do reflect and pen them down. And yeah, poetry is a great medium to not only act as therapy but also to help others know that they’re not alone. 🙂 Cheers!

I have nightmares when I’m hot or dehydrated. I used to not drink water before bed so I wouldn’t have to get up in the night, but once I figured out the connection I started having water before bed. Better to have to get up than to have those horrible dreams!

Dreams and nightmares are alternate realities. I often have recurring themes in my dreams. Thousands of years ago people believed there were prophets who could interpret one’s dreams but as time has gone on either we’ve lost that ability, or, it was all a ruse.

I tend to think dreams are collective states of mind. Like our waking hours help build our dreams with thoughts and images that we derive from what we put into our mind: commercials, movies, conversations, social media, etc. I have never heard of a person’s dream harming them whether the nightmare was lifelike or not. Take it for what it is or was and try replacing it with a swoosh pattern. When you are attacked by the images, simply swoosh them away and replace them with new images of things you want to see: butterflies, bluebirds, sunny skies, anything that you like a lot and you can even add music to your swooshes to make the impact stronger.

I have some of the weirdest dreams, and they occur for no reason! Most nights I don’t dream at all (or at leas I don’t remember it) and then other nights I have repeated dreams that I have been having since I was little.
One of my repeating dreams is I’m trapped in a house and there’s ghosts chasing me, but my family is sitting at the kitchen table and they can’t see me to help me. Lol. I have no idea what it means.
I noticed that you followed my old blog, so thank you so much! However, I have relocated to alyssaflanagan.com and I would love if you would re-subscribe to my new blog!
Thanks in advance and I look forward to reading more of your content!

Nightmares are definitely rough. I hope they pass for you. I did a dream interpretation class last year and it’s been such a gift in understanding the messages our subconscious is trying to either relay to us or work out while our conscious mind is quiet. It’s all symbolism as terrifying as they can be. Sending you lots of love and light 💜

One book that I remember my instructor speaking about was Carl Jung’s “The Undiscovered Self.” As far as websites, I do sometimes refer to dreamscloud.com as a way to gain some clarity on possible symbolism if I can’t figure it out myself. 🙂

Oh Sara, I’m so sorry to hear about your nightmares. I can tell you that there are some techniques you could try to address your fears before you dream (or after you wake up from a nightmare). I wrote a blog post about it (link at end of comment), but the gist is that you can visit the scariest part of a dream while you are fully alert and awake (when you know you’re safe). Visit the scariest part and then ask questions about it; stay curious with it until the fear resolves. Nightmares are very high powered emotional pressure valve releases for things in life that you’re not paying attention to. But also, you don’t NEED to address the dream directly. Another strategy is to set an intentional opposite dream (actively imagine a splendid dream and think about it as you’re falling asleep). This won’t necessarily prevent the nightmare, but it will give you a happy place to visit if you wake up from a nightmare so you’re not in a panic about falling back asleep. I hope this helps! ~Pam https://sweetgeorgiapam.com/2017/02/20/using-active-imagination-for-nightmares/

Good luck with it all! I don’t know much about dreams or psychoanalysis, but I do believe that dreams are essentially personal mythology, and mythology is just a group dream. All about our psyche expressed through stories and experience. I wish I could remember my dreams! I can probably only recall them once a month

How spooky, I had a very odd nightmare last night, and I wish I could understand it. Its good you don’t let the nightmares effect your daily life. Like you said maybe its the anxiety worming is way into your brain. But your fighting it. And that’s good. Its odd how we remember some dreams and nightmares, do you every write them down of which you remember?

Sara – Thanks for reading and “liking” my post, “And this, too, shall pass.” Don’t often have nightmares myself, but did recently and wrote about it in another post, “The Convergence of Dreams and Reality”. Give it a read, maybe my amateurish attempt at analyzation might give you a laugh. Hope you sleep well tonight.